


Flowers Speak Louder Than Words

by nothingwithoutyouxo



Category: Spring Awakening - Sheik/Sater
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crack, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Flowers, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Promposals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2018-12-15 21:17:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11814363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingwithoutyouxo/pseuds/nothingwithoutyouxo
Summary: With prom coming up in just a few short weeks, the gang have to decide how and when they're going to ask their romantic partner(s) to go with them. Fortunately, with the help of a few different varieties of flowers, they're able to do so.





	1. Monday (Otto/Georg)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [goldengalaxyboy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldengalaxyboy/gifts).



> I have been meaning to write this for quite some time and I've been working on it, I just hadn't written it down until now. This is really just a simple high school au but I love how flowers all have different meaning so it'll be exploring that concept through the context of these relationships. 
> 
> I guess I should put up a little disclaimer that I'm not American, have never gone to a prom and honestly promposals make zero sense to me but for the sake of this fic they're really adorable.

The first thing the two of them saw as they walked in through the double doors was a small gathering of girls from the prom committee hanging up a gigantic banner that they somehow managed to stretch across the entire corridor. Moritz would probably mention something about how commendable that was if he didn’t feel so sick at the sight of it. 

 

“It begins,” Ilse muttered next to him, drawing his attention to her again. She smiled at him faintly before shrugging and continuing on her way to her locker. Moritz easily fell into step next to her as the two of them weaved their way through the groups of students lining the corridors. “It’s exciting, I think,” she continued.

 

Moritz just shrugged in response. “It’s horrifying,” he replied.

 

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she laughed. “It’s not that bad.”

 

“You have someone to ask so of course it’s not that bad for you,” he reminded.

 

Ilse lit up at that. It was a familiar look that occurred whenever she thought about Wendla. “You’re right,” she said, “but I didn’t think you’d be so concerned about someone asking you.”

 

There was a specific kind of glint in her eyes that seemed to lead to the fact that she knew something he didn’t. Moritz wasn’t even sure if he wanted to know what that was. “I’m not.”

 

Ilse smirked over at him, nudging his arm gently with her elbow. “Sure you’re not,” she teased.

 

“Don’t.”

 

“Moritz, honestly, I’m sure someone will ask you. That’s really not something you have to be worried about.”

 

“I literally don’t care,” he said. “You guys will all be pairing off anyway. I probably won’t even go.”

 

Ilse turned serious at that. She shook her head almost furiously and pulled him to the side of the corridor so the two of them could stop without getting in the way of too many people. “No,” she accused. “You know what Wendla would say. And Thea and Anna. Let alone what  _ Martha  _ would say. There’s no way you’re not coming to Prom, ok? You’re coming, you’re wearing a suit and you’re going to dance with everyone and it’s going to be great.”

 

“I believe you,” he smirked.

 

“I’ll be your date, ok? Then you have no excuse.”

 

“Wendla will be your date. At least, I’m assuming so since she’s your girlfriend.”

 

Ilse rolled her eyes at that. “Sometimes, I hate you.”

 

“You’re not the only one,” he shrugged. 

 

She nudged him again, trying to cheer him up. He managed to crack a smile and she seemed satisfied with that so the two of them continued on their way.

 

“So, how are you going to ask her?” Moritz muttered, staring intently at the ground instead.

 

“Trying to get some ideas?” she teased. 

 

“Pfft.”

  
“I can’t tell you.”

 

He looked up at that. “You can’t tell me?”

 

Ilse shook her head. “There’s ears everywhere,” she explained, “and I really have to keep this a secret.”

 

“Well, who would I tell?”

 

Ilse looked at him.

 

“Martha does not count!”

 

The two of them paused for a moment, just looked at each other before bursting into laughter. 

 

“Ok, fine, “but I better be the first to know when you do it.”

  
“Of course.”

 

Otto was shuffling in his locker, oblivious when the two of them stopped next to him. He startled when Ilse said a quick ‘hi’, somehow managing to accidentally slam his locker shut in the process. 

Two pairs of now confused eyes locked onto him. 

 

“Sorry!” he apologised. 

  
“Are you alright?” Ilse asked, instantly concerned. 

  
“Fine,” he croaked, his voice an octave higher than usual. Otto cleared his throat quickly and tried again. “I’m fine.”

 

“You seem nervous.”

 

“Big day,” he shrugged. “Big, big day.”

 

Ilse threw a glance over her shoulder. From here she could just see as one of the girls climbed back down the ladder, looking up at the banner proudly before turning back to her friends. “Prom?” Ilse asked, trying her best not to seem teasing.

 

Otto sighed and nodded slowly. “Yeah,” he muttered. “I don’t really know what I’m doing,” he shrugged.

 

“I might be wrong,” Moritz started, “but I think all you have to do is ask.”

 

Otto rolled his eyes but nodded. He opened his locker again and pulled out one single red rose. “This helps right?” he asked.

 

Moritz looked down at the rose in his friend’s hand for a moment. “Um,” he muttered, “yes?”

 

“You might not want to keep it in your locker all day,” Ilse added. “It’ll wilt a bit in the heat in there.”

 

“I don’t have anywhere else to put it,” Otto explained, startling again as someone brushed passed him just a little too closely. Otto stuffed the rose back into his locker quickly. Moritz noticed that he had a little vase set up in there with some water, probably to keep the flower from wilting as best he could. He smirked but didn’t comment on it.

 

“But it’s a good idea right?” Otto pressed. “The rose, you know? It’s good? Romantic and all that?”

 

“I have no idea why you’re asking me that,” Moritz teased. 

 

Otto crossed his arms over his chest, “because you’re my friend and I need emotional support.”

 

“He’ll love it,” Ilse reassured. “Right, Moritz?”

 

“You don’t need me to tell you that.”

 

Somehow just those small reassurances seemed to help and Otto seemed instantly more confident. “I’m going to do it in the cafeteria,” he explained. “You know like that scene in High School Musical 3.”

  
“Of course you are,” Ilse laughed. “He’ll love it.”

 

“It’ll just be hard, you know. Lots of people.”

 

The bell rang overheard and the three of them looked towards the roof almost accusingly. 

 

“You’ll be great,” Moritz reassured once more for good measure.

 

Otto nodded then muttered something about heading to class, and the three of them headed off in different directions. 

 

***

 

Moritz had found throughout his many years in the education system that there was nothing more painful than gym class, and he was sure that the fact that it was mandatory was out to ruin his life specifically. Public humiliation seemed to be the sole purpose of this class and he despised it. As Moritz almost choked on the large amount of varying axe body sprays in the boy’s locker room he shuffled quickly in his satchel for his phone, and while he managed to find it he found something else as well. Sitting on top of his phone was a flower. He couldn’t tell what kind of flower it was - it wasn’t a rose and that was about the extent of his flower knowledge - and wondered how the hell it had gotten in there. Maybe it fell out of a tree or something on his way to school and he only just managed to noticed it. Flowers grew on trees right? That had to be it. 

 

***

 

“What do you think of tulips?” Martha asked him as the two of them made their way towards the cafeteria. 

 

“Tulips?’ Moritz asked, confused.

 

She nodded, smiling faintly. “Like the flower,” she said.

 

“Not you too,” he muttered.

 

Martha looked up him, not quite sure what he meant by that. 

 

“Otto was talking about flowers this morning too,” he shrugged. 

 

“Oh! Is he going to ask Georg to prom?” she beamed up at him.

 

“Yeah.”

  
“Oh that so nice!”

 

“Guess so.”

 

“Do you know when?”

 

Moritz checked the clock on his phone absently, noting the two missed calls from his dad, the three texts from Ilse and the four memes from Ernst. He looked up at the large mass of students currently also making their way in for their lunch hour. “I’d say in about fifteen minutes,” he answered. 

 

“In the cafeteria?” Martha asked, seemingly more shocked than anything else.

 

“I think he said something about High School Musical. Or one of those movies,” Moritz shrugged.

 

Martha clasped her hands together in front of her, lighting up in a way he rarely saw. “That’s so sweet,” she said. “Georg is going to love it.”

 

“We’ll find out soon enough.”

 

***

 

Otto was spinning the rose nervously between his fingers when Moritz and Martha took their seats at the table with their friends. All of the girls were present, with the exception of Ilse who’d mentioned that she needed to work on something for her art class every second she got. They all seemed practically giggly at what was about to happen. Hanschen was on one side of Otto, talking to him in a low voice and apparently trying to keep him calm, and Melchior was up the other end of the table, talking quietly to Thea. Moritz looked across the cafeteria and saw Georg and Ernst in the lunch line. He could practically hear Otto’s heartbeat from where he was sitting. It was enough to put him on edge as well. 

 

“You’re going to be great,” Moritz said, looking over at his friend. 

 

Otto nodded but he could tell that he wasn’t really hearing anything at the moment. Moritz glanced down at the stem of the slightly wilted rose in his hand and noticed that there weren’t any thorns on it. Considering how tightly Otto was holding onto the flower that was absolutely a brilliant idea. Probably Ilse’s. 

 

“Aannd they’re on their way over,” Anna smiled, watching as the two boys picked up their trays and started to head towards the table. 

 

Moritz wondered if Ernst knew what was going to happen or not. 

 

“Now!” Thea whispered, smiling down the table at Otto. 

 

Otto took a deep breath, and Moritz found himself pitying him. He nodded to himself and then jumped up onto the table. The girls let out some kind of collective squeak of delight at that. “Georg Zirchnitz!” he called, somehow managing to bring almost the entire cafeteria to a stunned silence. 

 

Georg looked up at his boyfriend with what seemed to be a mix between shock, confusion, and worry. Moritz guessed that he must have had no idea that Otto had been planning this. He wondered briefly how he’d managed to keep any of it a secret. 

 

Otto looked a little flustered by all the silence, and the many new pairs of eyes on him. He faltered for just a moment, just long enough for whispers to start breaking out across the room. 

 

“You’ve got this, Otto” Wendla reassured, beaming up at him. 

 

Otto nodded again to himself. He looked down at the rose in his hand, and then back at Georg, who now looked even more worried. He took a deep breath. “I love you,” he continued, voice softer than before. “I always have, since the first time I saw you, and I love you more every day.”

 

Most of the girls in  the cafeteria seemed to break into a collective ‘awww’ at that. Ernst carefully pulled Georg’s lunch tray out of his hands as he looked like he was about to collapse to the floor any second.

 

Otto kept his eyes on Georg, noting the tears starting to form in his eyes. “Would you … like to go to prom with me?”

 

Georg’s first response was to shake his head in disbelief, which seemed to be taken the wrong way considering the horrified, high-pitched shriek that encompassed the room. He took a few steps towards the table, closing the gap between him and his boyfriend. There was a pause where everyone just waited for what he was going to say, as the two of them just looked at each other. Everyone was sure that Otto would just drop dead on the table right then and there if it was anything but a ‘yes’. 

 

Georg broke into the biggest smile anyone had ever seen on him. “Of course I’ll go to prom with you, you idiot,” he said, laughing away the tears in his eyes. 

  
Cheers erupted in the cafeteria, none louder than those coming from the table that a bewildered Otto was still standing on. He jumped off quickly and pulled Georg into a hug. 

 

“I can’t believe you just did that,” Georg added, burying his head again Otto’s shoulder. 

 

“Surprise.”

 

The two pulled away from each other, smiling, and took their seats with the rest of their friends as lunch began to continue as normal. Ernst slid Georg his unharmed lunch tray as Otto handed him the rose a little self-consciously. 

 

Georg looked down at it, spinning it in his hands for a moment. “Didn’t Ilse tell you that it would wilt?” he asked quietly.

 

Otto startled, suddenly alarmed that maybe Georg didn’t even  _ like  _ the rose. “I didn’t think it would matter.”

 

He laughed at that and placed the rose gently on the table next to his tray. “Of course it doesn’t matter,” he said, pulling Otto in for a quick kiss. 

 

“Gayyyyy” Hanschen teased. 

 

***

“You missed the most beautiful thing!” Wendla called, quickly crossing the hallway to reach Ilse as she came out of her art class. She looked a little overwhelmed and had somehow managed to get green paint in her hair, but Ilse was smiling. 

 

“Are you sure I missed it because I think I’m looking at it,” she smirked, laughing as Wendla shoved at her playfully before intertwining their fingers together easily and continuing down the corridor. 

 

“It was kind of nice,” Moritz added, falling into step next to the two girls. “Is your art project really that important that you had to miss Otto slightly embarrassing himself?”

 

“It wasn’t embarrassing!” Wendla defended. “It was really brave. I’d like to see you try it.”

 

“I’ll pass.”

 

“It’s important,” Ilse answered, smiling over at the two of them. “You know me, I wouldn’t miss something like that if it wasn’t  _ really _ important.”

 

Moritz nodded, believing her immediately. He knew whatever secret thing she was working on, which she hadn’t even told  _ him  _ about, would be amazing. 


	2. Tuesday (Martha/Thea/Anna)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what's funny? I was really worried that this chapter would be too short, much shorter than the last one and yet it somehow ended up being longer. Thank goodness for that. Well, here's the new chapter!

Moritz wasn’t sure what it was about this week in particular, but it seemed the prom committee had decided that it was  _ the  _ week for spreading the excitement all over school. As he walked in he noticed a small group of girls lining the walls with posters reminding everyone to buy their tickets. He wasn’t sure why he was so repulsed by them, since the posters were really just coloured paper, but maybe deep down he had a good reason. The girls seemed to have a pattern happening. Red poster, orange poster, yellow poster, green poster, purple poster, blue poster. It took him longer than it should have to register that those were the colours of the rainbow and he realised he had no idea what the theme for prom this year was. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to know. 

 

“Can you feel the love in the air?” Martha asked, appearing next to him so quietly that he jumped when she spoke. 

 

“I’d really rather not,” he answered. 

 

“But you still can, right?” she beamed over at him. “I think it’s kind of nice.”

 

“You would,” he smirked.

 

“Shut up.”

 

Moritz laughed at that. The two of them started walking in the general direction of their first class and fell into a comfortable silence.

 

“I guess I wanted to run something by you,” Martha muttered, not looking at him but instead at the large mass of students around them waiting for the bell to ring.

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Something, uh, important,” she added.

 

“Are you ok?”

 

“Yeah, I’m ok.”

 

“Is it about -”

 

“No, no. Moritz’s it’s um, I think I might follow in Otto’s footsteps.”

 

Moritz looked over at his friend, trying to think what that could even mean. He wondered if Martha was going crazy for a moment before he remembered the events of the previous day. “Ohhhh.”

 

“There it is,” she smirked.

 

“Well, I would suggest not jumping on a table because I’m sure he doesn’t want a copycat.”

 

Martha rolled her eyes at him, nudging him gently as they rounded a corner. “I don’t know why I bother telling you anything,” she joked.

 

“Neither do I but come on. Spill the beans, Martha. How are you going to do it?”

 

She smiled at him, her eyes glinted in the semi-fluorescent lighting of the school corridor. “I actually can’t really tell you,” she said.

 

Moritz looked at her for a moment, trying to judge if she was joking or not. “”Seriously?”

 

She nodded. “I need it to be a secret, Moritz.”

 

“And you don’t think that  _ I  _ can keep a secret?”

 

Martha laughed but shook her head. “I guess I just wanted to know what you thought of the concept, you know? Or at least, that I was going to do it, but I don’t think I can tell you how. You’ll know when it happens, don’t worry.”

 

Moritz crossed his arms over his chest. “First Ilse and now you? What is this?”

 

“So Ilse’s asking Wendla to prom?” she smirked. “How lovely.”

 

“You didn’t hear that from me.”

 

***

 

Thea opened her locker slowly, trying not to jostle the books that she’d dumped in there the previous afternoon. She knew that she should have been a lot more careful as she quickly reorganised her pile of textbooks so that they weren’t about to fall on top of her, but she’d had a good reason, she’d been in a hurry. Hanschen had been with her at the time, talking to her about Ernst (again) and she was hoping that she could scab a ride home off him. Thea was surprised when she found a small piece of pale yellow paper hidden under one of her books. She had no recollection of putting it there and wasn’t quite sure how it managed to get there, but maybe it had fallen out of one of her text-books or something. She grabbed onto the small piece of paper. It had been folded so very neatly which only confused her more as she gently unfolded it. Written on the piece of paper was a small assortment of letters and numbers that made absolutely no sense to her in the slightest. 

 

A1

 

4

 

She wondered if somehow someone had managed to dump rubbish in her locker, but she was sure that this was placed far too strategically for that to be the case. The piece of paper hadn’t be crammed in through the grate, it had been placed amongst her books, probably so she would be able to find it. There weren’t a lot of people that knew her locker combination, and she was sure that there were even less people that actually managed to remember it. So, Thea came to the conclusion that her brother must have been playing some kind of trick on her. This was definitely something Hanschen would do, just to make her think. 

 

***

 

“Have you done it yet?” Moritz asked, almost cornering Martha on the way to her next class in the same way she had done to him this morning. She looked considerably nervous, far more so than he’d ever really seen her. It was kind of sweet. He knew how much Thea and Anna meant to her, and he guessed that something like this was probably really important. Part of him couldn’t wait for her to tell him they’d said yes.

 

“Not in its entirety,” she replied. She was holding a book in her hands so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. 

 

“What kind of cryptic answer is that?” he teased. 

 

“Half is done,” she shrugged. 

 

“I see,” he muttered, having absolutely no idea what that meant. 

  
  


***

 

Anna wasn’t sure why there was a piece of pink paper in her pencil case with a random assortment of numbers and letters on it but she knew that she wanted to find out why. She was in her history class when she found it, digging towards the back of her pencil case to find a eraser to hand to Ilse, who’d taken to drawing on the edge of her book again. Anna didn’t often leave herself little notes but it wasn’t entirely impossible. Her first thought was that maybe it was something that had been in there for a long time, probably a reminder that she needed to pick up some milk on the way home or something but she never really had pink paper on her. 

 

“What’s that?” Ilse asked, watching as Anna pulled the small piece of paper free and placed it on the table in front of her. 

 

“I have no idea,” she replied, looking down at it, confused. 

 

“Well open it,” Ilse shrugged, quickly plucking up the eraser that Anna slid over to her.

 

Anna looked around the room quickly, knowing that everyone would be far too focused on the class to be paying any kind of attention to her. She pried open the small paper, hoping that it was just a note she’d forgotten about but she found something different instead. 

 

6

 

PM

 

“Is it a time?” Ilse asked, looking down at the note over her shoulder.

 

“If it was a time it wouldn’t be written like that.”

 

“Hmm.” Ilse looked down at the note for a moment. The handwriting seemed familiar but she couldn’t quite tell whose it was. It was too neat to belong to Moritz, too cursive to belong to Melchior, not cursive enough to belong to Hanschen or Ernst ...  “Weird,” she shrugged, turning back to the little drawing that was lining the side of her page. 

 

“I wonder what it means,” Anna mused.

 

“Guess you’ll just have to find out,” she smirked. 

 

***

 

Thea brought the small piece of paper to lunch with her, hoping that maybe some of her friends would be able to help her figure out what exactly it meant. She was down two people, Ilse having gone off to work on her art project again and Martha saying something about keeping her company. Thea slid into the seat next to Ernst easily, hoping to prompt his attention as well as the rest of the boys at the table and Wendla. Moritz was still standing in the lunch line with Anna. 

 

“I need help,” she said and felt everyone’s eyes turn to her worriedly. 

 

“What is it?” Ernst asked, wrapping an arm around her immediately in reassurance. 

 

She sighed and pulled out the small piece of yellow paper, lying it down on the middle of the table so they could all see it. “Hanschen if this is your doing now is the time to say so.”

 

“Why would I send you some random letters and number?” he asked. “If I was going to prank you it would actually be  _ good _ .”

 

“Damn,” she muttered. If this wasn’t from Hanschen then she had no idea what it could mean. “Any ideas?” she asked the group.

 

“Maybe a page number?” Melchior offered. He seemed far more on edge than usual and none of them were really sure why. He was jittery, his fingers tapping against his lunch tray and he’d been far more quiet than usual over the past two days. It was enough to make the rest of the group worried, since he didn’t frequently confide in many of them straight away. 

 

“But what about the A?” 

 

“Maybe the first letter of a title? Or an author?” Georg offered. “Have you been meaning to read something?”

 

Thea shook her head.

 

“Is it a password?” Otto asked. “Part of a code or something?”

  
“It’s not familiar at all,” she shrugged.

 

The seven of them tried their best to brainstorm as many things as they could. Every idea they had seemed to get shut down rather quickly. It wasn’t part of a locker combination or a date or anything that seemed to have any kind of significance. 

 

“Maybe it was just a mistake?” Ernst muttered as Moritz and Anna finally reached the table. 

 

“Oh, you got one of those too?” Anna asked, placing her lunch tray carefully on the table before pointing to the small paper.

 

“Wait, did you get one?” Thea asked. The rest of the group leaned forward in anticipation as Anna pulled a small pink piece of paper out of her pocket and placed it on the table. The all looked down at it. 

 

“Wait a minute,” Wendla muttered. She leaned forward, picking up Anna’s piece of paper and then lying it down next to Thea’s.

 

A16

4PM

 

The table went very quiet while everyone looked down at the message. Even with their their brainstorming none of them had seemed to have thought that there would be another piece.

 

“A16 is the drama room,” Ernst said. “I think it’s an invitation.”

 

“Half is done,” Moritz whispered under his breath. Well, at least that made sense now. He smirked to himself but quickly tried to hide it from the others in case anyone noticed and tried to get an answer out of him. He had to respect Martha wanting to keep it a secret. He guessed that she wasn’t keeping Ilse company at the moment so much as planning whatever would be happening at 4pm. 

 

Thea and Anna looked at each other. Neither of them had any idea why anyone would want them to come to the drama room after school, but it seemed they were willing to find out. 

 

***

 

The corridor was emptying out around him and Moritz knew that was absolutely not a good thing as he dashed towards his locker. He didn’t want to be late to his class, but he didn’t have his textbook with him and according to his teacher that was a crime within itself. If he hadn’t gotten so distracted by having lunch with his friends this wouldn’t really be an issue but he always tried to spend as much time with them as possible. He should have done what Melchior did, left early with a more than reasonable amount of time to stop by his own locker and head to his economics class. Moritz should have but he didn’t and now he’d ended up in this mess. At least he knew that Ernst and Otto would cover for him if he needed them to. There was some reassurance in that. 

 

Moritz skidded against the ground, quickly coming to a stop in front of his locker. He tried to open his locker so quickly that he messed up a few of the numbers and had to try again, cursing himself and his ability to always fuck up at the most inconvenient times. When he finally managed to wrench his locker open, Moritz paused. Sitting inside his locker were two flowers, the same kind of flowers as had been in his satchel the day before. He had no idea how they’d gotten there but it couldn’t have been a mistake. It wasn’t like someone could accidently place flowers in his locker. They would need his combination to even get there in the first place. Moritz picked one of the flowers up and looked down at it. It wasn’t wilted in the slightest, not in the the way that Otto’s rose had been yesterday, so it can’t have been in there long. He would have to ask Ilse what type of flower it was. Or at least google it later when he had the time. Two days in a row had to be the start of some pattern. Right? 

 

The final bell sounded and Moritz cursed again, quickly placing the flower back and grabbing for his textbook. He barely managed to slam his locker shut again, cramming the lock back in place before bolting down the corridor towards his class.

 

***

 

Thea was watching the clock on her phone very carefully, waiting for it to strike 4 as she waited with Anna outside room A16. Anna was gazing up and down the corridor continuously, as if she was sure that someone would appear to solve this mysterious situation, but it was fairly deserted. The only people left around were the stragglers, people that didn’t want to go home yet or that were still waiting for their ride to get there. Most of the school had spilled out of the front doors the second the bell rang. It felt weird hanging back and not knowing what to expect. 

 

“Is it time yet?” Anna asked, leaned against her girlfriend a little impatiently. 

 

“One more minute,” Thea replied, tangling their fingers together easily. 

 

“I hope it’s worth it,” she muttered.

 

“I’m sure it will be.”

 

The two girls paused for a moment, watching as the clock on Thea’s phone finally reached 4pm. Anna couldn’t seem to contain herself, quickly turning towards the door and practically barrelling through it. Whatever they’d expected, it wasn’t what they walked in on. Martha was on the other side of the room looking equal parts nervous, horrified and excited. Next to her was the blackboard, upon which she had adorned tulips that spelled out the word ‘Prom?’ in gigantic letters. Neither Thea nor Anna had seen that many tulips in their lives and neither of them had any idea how Martha had managed to pull this off.

 

“I didn’t turn out as nice as I wanted it to but I think it gets the point across,” Martha said. She was smiling but couldn’t seem to meet her girlfriends’ eyes, her nerves getting the better of her.

 

“Yes,” Thea muttered.

 

Martha startled at that. “I’m sorry?”

 

Thea laughed. “Yes, I’ll go to prom with you,” she beamed.

 

“Obviously, I’ll go to prom with you too,” Anna smirked.

 

Martha was moving before she knew it, pulling both of them into a hug. “Really?”

 

“Really!”

 

“I can’t believe you did all of  _ that  _ for us,” Thea added, indicating the tulips as they pulled away from each other. 

 

“Of course I did. I love you.”

 

Thea and Anna looked at each other, both of them smiling wide enough to light up the entire room. “We love you too,” they laughed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tulips: signify a declaration of love/perfect love
> 
> Up next: Hanschen/Ernst 
> 
> Until next time!


	3. Wednesday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the reason this chapter took so long was because I was low key intimidated by it because I wanted to do it Right. Hopefully, I've done that and hopefully you guys like it !!!

The Prom Committee were making it entirely impossible to forget about Prom. That morning they had a table set up and were reminding everyone to buy their tickets. Moritz avoided eye contact with the two girls and managed to dodge being spoken to by either of them. Somehow he managed to walk into Ernst who he noticed straight away was far more flustered than usual. Ernst grabbed him by the shoulders and Moritz thought for a moment that he was going to shake him or something but his hands fell as quickly as he’d put them there and he shook his head. 

 

“Sorry,” he muttered. “I’m not sure if I walked into you or you walked into me.”

 

“Are you ok?” he asked, immediately concerned by just how wide Ernst’s eyes were.

 

“Yes and no,” he shrugged, and then laughed and Moritz realised he’d never been more concerned in his life. 

 

He quickly pulled Ernst over to the side of the corridor and tried to stare him down. “Talk to me.”

 

“Long story.”

 

“I’ve got time.”

 

Ernst paused. His mouth opened as if he was going to say something but he seemed to have forgotten because it closed again. He took a deep breath, obviously trying to calm himself down. “I might need you to read something for me later,” he said.

 

Moritz nodded. “I can try.”

 

“Yeah. I know you don’t read but Melchior’s been acting kinda weird all week and I don’t want to give it to Ilse or Wendla or anyone really but if you could read it that would be … really great.”

 

Moritz watched as Ernst’s eye flicked around the corridor, not seeming to land on anything or anyone in particular and wondered what he was trying to get him to read. “Is there an assignment I forgot or something?” he asked.

 

Ernst shook his head, pushed the sleeves of his plaid shirt up to his elbows absently. “No it’s, uh, um … poetry.”

 

“Poetry?”

 

“Yea - yep.”

 

“Ok, well, I’ll try,” he said, knowing full well that he knew nothing about poetry and would probably be of no help to Ernst. 

 

Ernst seemed to almost deflate, relaxing as if just the idea of the poem he’d written was a weight that had been resting on his shoulders. “Thank you.”

 

The bell rang overhead, causing the hallway to outwardly groan at the concept of walking to their classes. Moritz heard one of the prom committee girls yell something about tickets again and had to fight off the urge to roll his eyes. 

 

“I’ll find you later, yeah?” Ernst muttered.

 

“Yeah I’ll be around.”

 

“Thank you again, Moritz. Really.” Ernst rested his hand on Moritz’s arm for a moment before disappearing in the direction of his first class. 

 

Moritz continued to stand there for a moment, not entirely sure what had just happened, but then the warning bell sounded and he was shaken into action.

 

***

 

“.... it’s, like, the laziest possible way you could ask someone to Prom. Why wouldn’t you just ask them yourself? I don’t get it.” Wendla was saying as Moritz took a seat next to her at their lunch table. They were missing Ilse again due to her art project and most of the boys hadn’t arrived yet but there was already a deep conversation happening. 

 

“I think it’s sweet,” Anna smiled. “You could use it if you were really nervous or something. Or if you wanted to surprise someone. I feel like it would work.”

 

“What are you guys talking about?” Moritz asked, not even entirely sure if he wanted to know.

 

“The Prom Committee are doing flower grams,” Matha explained. “You pay them like two dollars or something and then they send a flower to who you’re asking to Prom.”

 

“Why not ask them yourself?” he asked.

 

“Do they have cute messages or something because then that would be kind of adorable?” Thea asked. 

 

“You’d probably have to customize them. How else would people know who they were from?” Wendla shrugged.

 

“True.”

 

“Masquerade Prom” Anna laughed.

 

“ _ A Cinderella Story _ in real life.”

 

They were still laughing by the time everyone else arrived, the noise level in the cafeteria only increasing as more people wandered in. Ernst sat next to Moritz but didn’t say anything about the poem that he wanted him to read. Moritz guessed that was because he was trying to keep it a secret. He had no idea why he had to harbour so many secrets lately but he’d never break his friends’ trust. 

 

It wasn’t until the end of lunch, when most of them had headed off to their lockers or towards their next classes that Ernst brought it up. He pulled out a piece of paper from his bag. It was a pale blue colour and Moritz wondered where all this colourful paper was coming from for a moment. First it was Martha’s pink and yellow and this time blue. 

 

“I’m not entirely happy with the wording yet but I’m happy with the shape,” he said, placing the paper on the table between them. 

 

Moritz had no idea what he meant by the shape until he actually noticed what Ernst’s poem looked like. It wasn’t written like the poetry he was used to, the stuff that they studied. The words were written so that they made the edge of a shape. A shape, that Moritz realised was definitely a flower. Maybe flowers were the theme of this year’s prom or something. He didn’t think he’d ever seen as much in his life as he had in the last three days. 

 

“It’s, um, for Hanschen,” Ernst muttered, barely audible over the noise in the room.

 

_ Of course it is. _ “I don’t think I’d be able to read it right now,” he replied.

 

“I know it doesn’t have to be today, I guess, but if you could get it back to me soon I would really appreciate it.”

 

Moritz nodded just as the bell rang overhead. Ernst stood up immediately, looking as strained as he had that morning and muttered another thank you before heading off. Moritz took two books out of his bag and wedged Ernst’s poem between them so that no one would see it before making his way out of the cafeteria.

 

***

 

Their English teacher was droning on about something (most likely about Shakespeare) that Moritz had zoned out of halfway through so he decided that maybe trying to read Ernst’s poem now would be a good idea. Even if Ernst had given him more than just that day to get through it, it felt wrong to just hang on to it for a long time. So he’d tried to give it back to him later that day. Moritz looked at the poem on the page, his eyes not quite focusing on the words but instead the shape of it and he realised that he probably should have asked Ernst how to read this thing. He had no idea where to start. 

 

“Oooh, concrete poetry,” Ilse muttered next to him. 

 

“Yeah,” he replied.

 

“Ernst is such a sweetheart.”

 

Moritz wondered for a moment how she knew that this was Ernst’s but then realised that she must have recognised his handwriting. Not to mention he was the only one in their group that actively wrote poetry. “How do I read this thing?” he asked, knowing that she would at least give him a starting point. 

 

“Left to right, look for the capital letters,” she shrugged, turning her focus back to the little drawing she was working on in the margin of her book. “You’ll probably have to turn the page so you can follow it. He’s done the shape really well. It definitely looks like an amaryllis.”

 

“A what?”

 

“That’s the type of flower that it is,” she explained. 

 

Speaking of flower types, he was reminded that he wanted to ask her about the flowers that he’d found in his locker the day before, but they were at home in a vase on his desk and he didn’t have a photo to show her. He’d have to take one before asking her. Instead, Moritz tried to focus again on the page in front of him, skimming over the words until he found a capital letter. Alright, now he could read it. 

 

There was a knock at the door and the teacher stopped rambling to answer it. On the other side were two girls from the Prom Committee holding bunches of roses. 

 

“Flowers grams,” one of them said, beaming.

 

Moritz rolled his eyes and looked back down at the page in front of him, scanning for the starting point again. He’d mark something next to it but that would ruin Ernst’s poem and he couldn’t do that. He tried to ignore the giggles in the room as some of his classmates received their flower grams. They were definitely more popular than any of them had thought they would be. Maybe people were just using them as an excuse to cheaply send flowers to their partners, he supposed he couldn’t blame them. Flowers were expensive as hell from what he heard. Moritz only looked up again when he felt Ilse nudge him. That’s when he noticed that one of the girls was standing next to his desk.

 

“Yours was anonymous but I’m assuming you know who it’s from,” she said. Her smile sweet enough that it put him on edge.

 

“Sure,” he said, taking the flowers from her. 

 

Then the two girls left as quickly as they came, probably to head to the next class to hand out more flowers. 

 

Moritz placed the flowers on his desk as the teacher started up again. There were three of them and he decided that this had to be some kind of pattern, since the amount of flowers was increasing each day. 

 

“Those aren’t roses,” Ilse whispered beside him. 

 

“Nope,” he replied.

 

“That’s kind of cool actually. I thought they only did roses but maybe they can do any flowers if someone provides them with it.” She paused for a moment, seemingly in thought.

 

“Yeah, I dunno what they are but they’re been showing up all week,” he shrugged. “Yesterday there was two in my locker and today there’s three so someone must be determined or something. Either that or they think I’m someone else.”

 

“Bit hard to accidentally put flowers in someone’s locker if you didn’t know who they were. You’d need their combination and stuff.”

 

“True.”

 

Moritz shrugged, turning his attention again for the millionth time to Ernst’s poem.

 

***

 

Ernst was aware that he’d been avoiding Hanschen all day, and he knew that would probably confuse the hell out of his boyfriend but he couldn’t avoid it. He couldn’t see him until his poem was ready. He was far too worried that he’d accidentally mention it or that he’d act weird and that would definitely make Hanschen concerned. He didn’t want that. 

 

“What’s up, buttercup?” Georg whispered next to him. 

 

Ernst must have zoned out because he startled and Georg had to bite back a laugh. 

 

“Hey, come on. You’ve been weird all day and you can’t do that this week because Melchior’s already called dibs.”

 

“Just thinking a lot,” he shrugged, trying to seem as casual as possible. He could tell that Georg didn’t buy it. 

 

“Thinking about what?”

 

“Plans for … the future,” he muttered.

 

“The future?” Georg raised an eyebrow.

 

“The, uh, very near future.”

 

He smiled. “Ah, so you’re next then. I guess our whole group will be down with their promposals by the end of the week.”

 

“Those of us in relationships, I guess,” Ernst shrugged.

 

“So, how are you going to do it?” 

 

“Poem.”

 

“That’s perfect.”

 

Ernst shifted in his seat, suddenly self conscious. “I just hope he likes it,” he muttered.

 

“Ernst,” Georg reassured, resting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “He’s going to love it.”

 

***

 

Wading through the sea of people to try and find Ernst at his locker was harder than it really should have been, but Moritz was determined. It was always difficult moving around at the end of the day, since everyone else seemed intent on getting out of the school as quickly as possible. As fair as that was it made it hard if you were trying to head to anywhere else. Moritz was more than grateful when he saw Ernst standing at his locker, part of him had been worried that he’d already left and he really didn’t want to hold onto the poem longer than necessary. He was sure that Ernst would rather get this all over with, since he’d been kind of avoiding Hanschen all day Moritz thought it wise for that to not go on any longer. 

 

“Ernst!” he called to get his friend’s attention.

 

Ernst looked up, spotting Moritz in the thinning crowd of other students and tried to smile. 

 

As soon as Moritz stopped in front of him, he pulled the poem out from between the two books that had been keeping it safe. “I read all of it,” he said. “And I think you just wanted some reassurance so I’ll tell you that I thought it was really good.”

 

Ernst barely hesitated before pulling Moritz into a hug. “Thank you, Moritz. Thank you, thank you.”

 

Moritz had never been too sure what to do in hugs. He didn’t received them all that often. He patted Ernst on the back three times and then pulled away. “Go and ask your boyfriend to Prom.”

 

Ernst nodded, taking the poem from his outstretched hands. “I can do this.”

 

“Of course you can.”

 

Hanschen wasn’t one to hang around after school so Ernst practically ran down the hallway and around the corner to his locker. Fortunately, Hanschen was in the middle of a conversation with Ilse so this didn’t have to wait until the next day. As Ernst stopped next to the two of them, Ilse looked up and smiled. 

 

“I’ll see you both tomorrow,” she said, waving and then heading off. Ernst wondered if she knew what he’d come to do.

 

“Hi,” he said.

 

“So now you’re talking to me?” Hanschen asked, slamming his locker shut. 

 

Of course he had the right to be a little bit angry. Ernst just hoped that he could make up for it. “Yes.”

 

“Yes? You’re not even going to tell me why you’ve been avoiding me all day?” 

 

Ernst held out the poem and hoped that Hanschen wouldn’t notice that his hand was shaking.

 

Hanschen looked from the piece of paper back to Ernst and then softened. He took it gently and looked down at it, noticing the very careful shape of Ernst’s neat handwriting. “What did you do?” he asked.

 

Ernst just shrugged, his nerves making it hard for him to speak as he waited for Hanschen’s reactions.

 

He scanned the words, noting all the complements and pure sap that it contained. If he was in a relationship with anyone else, anyone who wasn’t Ernst, he would have despised it. Instead he was finding himself to be incredibly moved. 

 

Ernst was terrified, every second seemed to be passed in slow motion as he waited for Hanschen’s reaction. He knew how little Hanschen cared for what was contained in the poem. He wasn’t really one for mushy niceties but Ernst didn’t want this to happen any other way. However Ernst had been expecting him to react, it wasn’t that Hanschen would kiss him the second his eyes finished scanning the words on the page. It wasn’t something he usually did when they were around lots of people, and even with the hallways thinning out it wasn’t something that Ernst had considered. That definitely didn’t mean he was opposed to it. 

 

“Is that a yes?” he whispered when Hanschen pulled away.

 

He nodded, eyes boring into his boyfriend’s. “Yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Amaryllis: symbolic of splendid beauty and used to indicate worth beyond beauty
> 
> Next up: Wendla/Ilse
> 
> I plan on having the next chapter done in the next two(ish) weeks so I'll see you all soon !!!

**Author's Note:**

> Red roses: symbolise love, longing, desire, respect, admiration, devotion
> 
> Up next: Martha/Thea/Anna
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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